For the fueltank construction, I thought about 3 possibilities: steel, aluminum and composites (carbon fiber, fiberglass, kevlar). Taking into account my limited means and knowledge I choosed the last option. The technical FIM rules explain in a quite precise way (in this document) the requirements that a composite fueltank must fulfill in order to be homologated for racing. These requirements are based on the rules for road legal vehicles, so it is clear that this is the way to follow (at least in an orientative way), not only for racing, but to fabricate something safe. If finally I find difficult to achieve these requirements, I will build or order an aluminum fueltank. The bike has an outer carcass that covers the real fueltank, so the external look (finish) is not so important.
Having the fueltank in the computer model, the first step is to build a real model, I mean, some kind of “sculpture” with the same shape and dimensions of the fueltank I want to build. It is possible to use a lof of materials, in this case I used some wood.
After that, I fill it with poliurethane foam.
Finally I applied polyester filler to achieve (after a lot of sandpaper) some “good” surfaces.
In the next photo you can see the fueltank model already finished, with it’s final shape and surfaces. In the bottom area there is a big dent, I made it to provide some room for the electrical wiring (you can see it in black colour in the previous photo). It is very important to take into account this kind of details, and think everything twice before starting building.
To build this kind of things by hand requires a lot of hours of work. It would be great to find some technical sponsor that would allow me to use a rapid prototyping machine (stereolithography or similar), in order to do this kind of work faster and in a more accurate way. I must look for it.
English is not my native language, so please let me know if you find any mistake. Thank you.
[tags]fueltank, composites, model, construction, motorbike, morlaco[/tags]